Victorian Costuming

Monthly Archives: December 2011

As you may recall, in an earlier post I wrote about Lady A and I getting into the Museum of Man and Nature for our photo shoot with two free passes. How I got those passes is a bit of a story. In my city we have the now defunct Costume Museum of Canada. The museum closed to the public and all the clothing was put into storage. A big regret is this all happened before I rediscovered my love old cloths and I never saw the museum when it was open. I did contact them and let them know I’d be willing to do any volunteer work that was needed if they were willing to train me. (I figured as a volunteer I’d be able to see the cloths up close over time.)

Right now the stock pile of clothes are in storage with the odd few pieces coming out for small portable showings. The Museum of Man and Nature was doing an evening event last October called Nuit Blanche and they wanted a display of 1960’s outfits and they contacted the Costume Museum of Canada. The 1960s is certainly not my era but I was only to willing to have my first (and at this point, only) volunteer experience with this museum. In exchange for setting up the display, the Museum of Man and Nature unexpectedly gave free passes.

Here are some of the outfits we put out.

"Rachel and the lounge lizard Bruce"

The fun thing about the ladies I was working with is they like to give the “people” personalities and then dress and accessorize them accordingly. Fits my personality to a tee! It is hard to see but I had the museum staff running around for a wine glass and cigarette that I felt Bruce just had to have.

Lily...she is sneaking out after a tryst...one stocking on and one off.

The standing mannequins are attached to their base by one foot. You can’t get shoes on them without drilling a hole in the one shoe (which are artifacts). The trick was to either ignore it like I did with Bruce or to hide it. But, sometimes…like with Lil, I was able to make it work for the character and she carried her stocking and shoes.

Edith…my crowning glory.

I love Edith. I saw the stuff the ladies had chosen for her to wear and I instantly saw my husbands grandmother. She would sit like that with her purse clutched in her little hands at family gatherings! Funny thing is all kinds of people saw her and said…”That’s my aunt so and so.” “She looks just like my mother!”

I had fun doing that. And I felt I was good at it. One of the ladies asked me how I seemed to be able to get them to sit or stand straight and look natural. I thought about it and I think it is from my rehab background. I have a basic understanding of how the muscles and bones work to achieve balance. If the dummies were sitting funny or falling over I knew exactly where and how far they needed to bend or straighten to look normal.

I really hope they call me back for some 1800’s outfits. Actually, what I’d really like them to do is to create an on-line archive like the Met has. I’d be only to happy to help dress and photograph the outfits. FOR FREE!

I wish I could say that I have plenty of opportunities to wear period costumes. Alas, I do not. But, I have plenty of opportunities to wear costumes in my job. In fact, the folks in my seniors home are disappointed when I fail to show up in one!

I find wearing a costume quite freeing. People look at you and know you are not dressed normally so they don’t expect you to behave normally. If I walk up to someone I barely know and give them a big hug they will be calling to cops. But if I dress like this….

Myself on the left and my coworker on the right.

Ok…likely they’d still call a cop but at work I can get away with this. How did I achieve this glorious look? I found a white skirt and hoodie at a second-hand store. I bought the white face paint, chicken beak, stockings and feather boa at a store that specializes in costumes and party supplies. I also bought angel wings at the same store. I pinned the feather boa to the front of the hoodie. I choose pinning over sewing as it would make it easy for me to use the hoodie later for mucking about the house. I used a big red glittery plastic leaf on the hood to represent the comb (that was also pinned on). The crowning glory was the feet. I took the yellow plastic dish scrubbing gloves that I found at a garage sale and I stuffed the fingers with toilet paper. I then slid the gloves over a pair of shoes. Ta Da…chicken feet!

When I first considered getting back into this hobby I promptly dismissed the idea. My thinking was if I couldn’t do it in a historically accurate manner I wasn’t going to do it. I got hung up on the idea that I couldn’t afford 12 meters of pure silk taffeta so there was no point. I just was not too interested in what the poor ladies were wearing. I was looking at Worth dresses and the like and drooling over them. I didn’t want to be making cotton shifts that the maid would wear.

1877 dress worth dinner dress The Met

Then I started to think in details.

I would have to use modern materials if the original material is illegal to own. An example of that is ivory.

1868 ivory parasol The Met

If I was replicating something with fur on it, I would likely use fake fur as I’m not in favor of an animal dying for my hobby, it is too expensive to buy and I’m not skilled enough to not ruin the fur and make that animal’s death an even bigger waste.

1916 cape The Met

And real jet and diamonds is simply not an option. What if one fell off!

I had no moral or ethical issues over using modern substitutes for these items. Once I agreed with myself that these substitutes would be OK I asked myself why a synthetic fiber would be considered wrong. True, polyester would not be an accurate fiber but if I can’t afford the real stuff polyester would be an affordable option. Also, synthetic fibers wash better. I would be wearing these outfits as a costume, not as a museum piece and not as a contest entry (at least not at this point). As costumes, they would get dirty and I’d have to be able to wash them without worrying that I ruined 3 days worth of pay in the wash tub! This started me into thinking of perspective. I wanted to look like a lady from the 1800’s but I don’t have her money or her maids. IT IS A COSTUME! If I’m a fake lady I can have fake fabric.

Don’t get me wrong! If by some miracle I find 12 meters of silk at $2 a meter I’m snapping that up and making me a dress. But, I’m not going to sit around waiting for that to happen!

So what will be accurate? I want to match styles to the era. If I’m wearing an 1880s dress I will wear lace up boots (granted they are pleather and not real leather) and not strappy stilettos. The correct sleeve style will go with the correct skirt style. If I make a dress that would be dated pre sewing machine then I’d like to think I’d hand sew that puppy. (No plans for pre machine dresses. I’m chronically lazy.) I’d also try to use colors that were available. No hot pink 1840s numbers unless I can find proof that there was such a creature.

How do the rest of you balance authenticity, expense, skills and availability of materials?

People seem to be liking the work of the warm and wonderful Lady A and I now have permission to use her likeness here so I thought I would do a post of our first photo shoot.

We had gone to Maple Grove Tea House which is in a house that was built on the river in 1866 for a Captain Kennedy. It is quite small with a few rooms made up to look like the home may have looked in its day. It’s real draw is having tea on the veranda and walking in the gardens surrounding it.

Lady A in her lovely purple ensemble…in the interior of Kennedy House

I love the beading on her dress! And I simply must make a bustle dress one day!

Lady A looking all lovely and put together and I look like my maid either drinks or hates me.

We must do that shoot again. Next time I will do it with the aid of an iron and a mirror!

Back view of Lady A’s dress

The white gown is also Lady A’s work. It is a regency style dress. It is worn by a co-worker who is totally not into sewing or even looking at this stuff but she is a trooper and went along with us-into public no less! This mystery lady is a bit shy. Coming out with us was pushing her comfort levels some. I will spare her dignity and not post pictures of her from the front but I thought she looked gorgeous. You will just have to take my word for it!

Set on your pin seventy stitches, and knit in imitation knitting for about 100 rows, when knit twenty-five stitches for the next row, after which take another pin and fasten off the next twenty stitches, the knit the next twenty-five stitches on another pin.

Continue knitting the twenty-five stitches on one pin in the same stitch, fastening off one stitch at the beginning and the end of each row, next to the middle, which forms the hollowing round the neck . When the stitches are reduced to four fasten off.

Do the same with the other pin containing twenty-five stitches, and fasten off.

Sew white ribbon to the corners to hang it round the neck.

Some persons do not hollow out bosom friends, but knit them square or oblong.

There was considerable debate on the dreamstress’ blog over what was meant by imitation knitting. Based on the pattern prior to this one, it was decided the pattern was k1, p1, k1, p1, repeated to the end of the row. The next row was p1, k1, p1, k1 repeated to the end of the row. These two rows were repeated through out the project.

What alternating and staggered knit purl looks like.

The first of the two intentions of the bosom buddy was to keep a ladies “girls” warm. This pattern effectively creates a waffle texture with the little dents holding in the heat. The second intension was to help the ladies who were lacking in the bosom department (scandalous!) I think this pattern would add some bulk.

When making this I used Lion Brand Yarn which is 100% wool and medium weight. I chose the natural color. I set on my pins (4.5 mm needles or size 7 needles) 70 stitches (cast on 70 stitches) and I knit in the pattern for 100 rows.

knitting at about the 80th row

Once the 100 rows are complete you knit the first 25 stitches of the 101 row in pattern.

knit in pattern the next 25 stitches

The next part of the instructions talks about using other needles but I didn’t need to. Maybe our needles are longer? Anyway, on the same needles I cast off 20 stitches.

20 stitches cast off

On the remaining stitches, knit in pattern for each row. Decrease one stitch on each row at the edge nearest the cast off stitches.

Perhaps you can see the gentle slope on part on right hand side.

Continue in this manner until you have four stitches left.

Down to 4 stitches

This is where the pattern tells you to cast off. But I have a big neck and thought adding a bit of length would help. So I added 8 rows with the four stitches then I cast off.

My extra 8 rows.

In hind site, that extra 8 rows made no difference. I could have gotten the same effect by making sure my ribbon was long enough. I cut off the wool once my casting off was done and reattached near the 20 cast off stitches on the other side.

Reattached wool

I did the same thing to this side as to the other side so that they mirrored each other. I then attached lengths of ribbon to the ends. I chose a narrower ribbon as I figured the lady may not have wanted to advertise she was using such devices to enhance her figure. The whole thing would have been discretely hidden under her clothes. I suppose a larger bow peeking out at the back of the neck would have been pretty as well.

Ties attached.

It does look a bit like a bib. I’m guessing it wasn’t intended to be seen so it doesn’t matter. I don’t have a 1840s outfit to show this with. Thank you Dreamstress…now you’ve made sure I must have another dress on my to-do list! My 1895 dinner gown is on my dress form so I slipped it on to that. (Totally wrong era I know….) On an open neck evening gown you would see part of the friend. Once the lady arrived at the party, it would be easy enough to remove.

The bosom friend on Trudy

I would think that for daytime wear, it would go on under the clothes and there it would remain until the dress came off. A lady would choose to wear it if she intended to be in a cold place all day or if she was willing to be hot all day in favor of looking more endowed. False advertising if you will.

I had a devil of a time getting that thing not to buckle up in the front and to lay flat. (Perhaps I need to block the thing…) I got it so for the picture by not tieing the ribbons tight. I had to force myself to think outside of my new millennium box (which is freezing in Canada) and not try to get that wool all around my neck. When I loosened the ribbon I found the wool “padded” the shoulders of Trudy giving her a more sloped shoulder than I’m used to. Then I recalled, there was an era that liked that sloped shoulder look. Any experts out there able to confirm that for the 1840’s? Also, my next big project is an 1850s dress. Anyone know if ladies would have worn this in the 50s? I’m thinking a middle-aged woman might have (which is what I am).

That’s all for today. Enjoy your Boxing Day folks. I haven’t decided on tomorrows topic yet so you will have to wait and see.

I finished a knitting project today. I’ll post about it tomorrow. For today I just want to post about the prime ingredient for knitting…especially if you are trying to knit something from vague pattern instructions from the 1840s! In that scenario one must have a source of comfort and stress release….

I had a lovely afternoon watching Christmas movies that were decked out with period costumes. The livingroom was clean, I had a nice Kalhua and milk (aka Brown Cow) next to me and I was wrapping gifts. That was a blissfully relaxing way to spend Christmas Eve. In a couple of hours I will be in church enjoying a nice program. Usually we are with family afterwards but not this year. But I will make a nice dinner and we will share that.

In my job, I often wear costumes. Most are homemade but some times not. The last costume was store-bought….